The present invention relates to a procedure for manufacturing ices, specifically for the manufacture of ice creams with a wafer envelope, with which an end product is procured different to that habitually found with this type of ice creams, specifically based on a single piece of wafer, duly shaped to receive the ice cream in its inside.
The invention also concerns the machine for implementing said procedure and, consequently, for obtaining the new ice cream.
Within the gamut of ice creams, served in origin partially enclosed in wafer, there are two basic presentations, one in which the wafer takes the form of a xe2x80x9cconexe2x80x9d or cornet, which duly shaped is subsequently filled with the ice cream, and another in which the bulk ice cream is positioned between two wafer sheets constituting what is usually termed a xe2x80x9cwaferxe2x80x9d.
In this second group of ice creams the starting point is usually rectangular wafer sheets, so that the ice cream is formed with the assistance of two such sheets, in a parallel disposition and suitably spaced in accordance with the intended size of the ice cream.
The procedure which the invention proposes has the objective of achieving a result which is approximately that of the ices of the aforementioned second type, but with the particularity that a single piece of duly shaped wafer is employed.
To this end and more specifically, the procedure which the invention proposes starts with the employment of a wafer, of appropriate shape and dimensions, initially flat, to which a thermal process is applied whereby its rigid constitution becomes pliable, which permits it to be reshaped. Immediately thereafter said wafer is subjected to a reshaping step until a fluted profile is formed, approximately U-shaped, with rounded vertices, by means of folding the marginal areas of the wafer piece towards the imaginary vertical and middle plane thereof, it being thereafter subjected to a cooling step for the wafer to recover its stiff constitution and, as a consequence, retain in a stable manner the reshaping it has undergone. The process concludes with the insertion into the trough of the fluted body shaped from the single piece of wafer, of the corresponding bulk ice cream which fills it inside, leaving the product ready to be packed for distribution. This product or bulk ice cream can be produced on site in the machine itself or be ready-shaped bulk ice cream which is introduced in this step of the process.
The machine for implementing this procedure comes with a conveyor belt on which an alignment is formed of the receptacle trays for the respective wafers, each of said trays being made up of three parts, one central and fixed and two foldable sides, each of the latter having a roller which runs on the corresponding guide rail, so that the three constituent parts of each tray are maintained horizontal during the reception and thermal processing of the wafer and tilt, by means of suitable conforming of the guide rails mentioned, at the moment foreseen for the shaping of the wafer.
On this conveyor belt, and after an initial open area for the positioning of the wafers, a tunnel oven is mounted in which the thermal processing is performed for the softening of the wafers, and at the exit from this tunnel oven a pressing mechanism is located with the twofold function of, on one hand steadying each already shaped wafer in position within the corresponding tray and, on the other cooling the wafer sufficiently for the latter to be fixed in shape.
After the pressing mechanism mentioned, an ice-cream feeder mechanism is mounted, with which each piece of wafer is filled, in accordance with the quantity pre-established for this purpose, or on the other hand, the insertion step is located for inserting the previously prepared bulk ice cream.